Hingis and Taiwan’s Chan capture third straight title at Hunan

Hingis will replace Lucie Safarova as No.1 in the new WTA rankings on Monday, and Chan will occupy the No.2 spot – her career-best ranking.

Hingis will be No.1 in the new WTA rankings on Monday, and Chan will occupy the No.2 spot – her career-best ranking. Hingis will be No.1 in the new WTA rankings on Monday, and Chan will occupy the No.2 spot – her career-best ranking.
(CNA photo)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)-- Top seeds Chan Yung-jan (詹詠然) and Martina Hingis captured their third consecutive title on Saturday after taking down Shuko Aoyama and Yang Zhaoxuan at the 2017 Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open, 7-6(5), 3-6, 10-4.

“It's nice to celebrate [my birthday] with a victory, obviously, and with a great partner to do it with,” said Hingis, who turned 37 today. “We're looking forward to the after party.”

Hingis will replace Lucie Safarova as No.1 in the new WTA rankings on Monday, and Chan will occupy the No.2 spot – her career-best ranking.

The recent US Open Champions hadn’t dropped a set en route to the final in Wuhan, but faced a tough fight against the unseeded team, who was bidding to win their first Premier-level title.

The top seeds dropped serve in the opening game and spent the whole first set trying to catch up before forcing a tiebreak, where they finally pulled away. But Yang and Aoyama struck back in the second set, recovering from an early break to win five games in a row. Chan and Hingis finally edged through in the match tiebreak to win the match after an hour and 48 minutes.

The Chan and Hingis team sits firmly in first place in the Road to Singapore standings and have already qualified for the season-ending BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore.